Protesters in Myanmar try to block Red Cross aid to Rohingya Muslims

Buddhist protesters in Myanmar threw petrol bombs to try to block a shipment of aid to Muslims in Rakhine state, where the United Nations has accused the military of ethnic cleansing, before police fired in the air to disperse them.

Hundreds of protesters were involved in the attempt late on Wednesday to stop Red Cross workers loading a boat with relief supplies. 

The aid shipment was bound for the north of the Rakhine State where suspected rebel attacks on August 25 sparked a military backlash resulting in the forced displacement of over 420,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh.

But many Rohingya remain in Myanmar, hiding in fear without food and other supplies, aid workers say.

Several hundred people tried to stop a boat being loaded with about 50 tonnes of aid at a dock in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, a government information office said.

"People thought the aid was only for the Bengalis," the secretary of the state government Tin Maung Swe said, using a term Rohingya find offensive.

Protesters, some carrying sticks and metal bars, threw petrol bombs, and about 200 police were forced to disperse them by shooting into the air, a witness and the government information office said.

The witness said he saw some injured people. Eight people were detained, the information office said. None of the aid workers were hurt, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Red Cross truck crash kills nine in Bangladesh

News of the clashes in the violence-wracked state, where security forces have been accused of razing scores of Rohingya villages, emerged as a truck hired by the Red Cross and ICRC crashed in Bangladesh on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 10 others. 

The driver lost control of the truck, which went into a ditch near the border town of Cox's Bazar which hosts most of the Rohingya refugees. 

"Nine people were killed including six on the spot and three in a hospital," said Yasir Arafat, deputy police chief of Bandarban border district.

The victims were mainly labourers who were to distribute the aid.

The truck was taking food and other supplies to Rohingya Muslims caught in a no-man's land between Myanmar and Bangladesh at the Nykhongchhari section of the border, Red Cross officials said.

Mozaharul Huq, secretary of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said that the truck was carrying rice, puffed rice, drinking water, sugar and other food items.

Aid agencies have launched a huge relief operation around Cox's Bazar, but say they have been taken by surprise by the scope of the influx from Myanmar.

Relief organisation Save the Children said as more refugees from Myanmar arrive in Bangladesh, they face the risk of dying from a lack of food, water and supplies. 

One million Rohingya Muslims are expected to seek shelter by the end of the year, including some 600,000 Rohingya children, the charity said.